The best street art in South Melbourne

South Melbourne is best known for its beautiful market, my favourite in Melbourne. But there is also quite a lot of street art on the walls of this fairly quiet suburb! Its neighbour Southbank is much livelier but only has a few notable murals, which I also mention in this article. To help you not miss anything, here is the ultimate guide to where to find the best street art in South Melbourne and Southbank!

The most beautiful murals in South Melbourne and Southbank

See also

The best street in Melbourne CBD
The best street art in Fitzroy and Collingwood
The best street art in Prahran, South Yarra and Windsor
The best street art in St Kilda
The best street art in Brunswick and Brunswick East

South Melbourne

Let’s begin this itinerary at the South Melbourne tram station (line 96). I quite like the cubist-inspired portraits on the walls of the station, by Bailer (for the background) and Morano (for the faces).

Inside the South Melbourne Market, the very talented Cam Scale painted the portrait of four local residents (three adults and a child). The brick walls give a unique and gorgeous texture to these faces. They are only visible when the market is open (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 8am to 4pm – 5pm on Friday).

In front of the market, on the black wall of Chef’s Hat kitchen equipment store, Peter CTO Seaton depicted a chef cooking, with flames escaping from the pan he’s holding. This mural is so realistic that it looks like the tree in front of it is about to catch fire! But no drama here, these two photos were just taken in two different seasons.

Focus: Peter 'CTO' Seaton

Peter ‘CTO’ Seaton is a contemporary artist living in Melbourne. His murals cover many sections of walls across the city (in St Kilda for example), but it is in South Melbourne that there is the greatest concentration of his works. His style is easily recognisable. Most of his murals are predominantly in black and white, with geometric patterns, distortions, and colour glitches, that make them look like partially damaged negatives.

A portrait by Peter CTO Seaton in a laneway near the South Melbourne Market, which sadly no longer exists today.

I already mentioned it in my article about the best street art in Prahran (where some of her artworks can be found), several traffic signal boxes around South Melbourne and particularly near the market have been decorated by Juzpop, aka Justine Millsom. A great way to add colour to the area.

Leave the market behind and continue along Coventry Street, then turn right onto Union Street. Above a parking lot, the artist Ash Keating has covered a wall with colourful spray paint. Continue straight then turn left onto Dorcas Street, and right onto Emerald Hill Place. At the very end of this cobbled alley, at the corner with Park Street, you can admire this cute golden monkey, a collaboration between Tayla Broekman and Bailer.

The duo Brigitte Dawson and Melissa Turner who form Melbourne’s Murals are at the origin of a few murals in the area. First, some native birds on a wall of Wynyard Street. But also several facades of the Emerald Hill estate, apartment buildings between Dorcas Street and Coventry Street. One of their works is the portrait of Joan Maxwell, a resident of the neighbourhood since the 1960s and who died in 2018. The others depict different native Australian plants and animals.

A few steps away on Moray Street, Mike Makatron has decorated the front of the fishing tackle store The Flyfisher. I quite like the irony of this mural on which it is an immense fish which is about to devour a tiny fisherman.

I really like the next artwork, on the corner between a small cobbled alleyway (Hanna Lane) and Sturt Street. Artists Skr3am and Jinks One collaborated to create this portrait, decomposed in multiple picture frames. Very original and really stunning! There’s also another mural by Skr3am in that same laneway.

Then retrace your steps back to Coventry Street. At the corner with Tope Street, turn around to admire this beautiful abstract mural by Bailer. A little further on, you will pass in front of the portrait of Ange Postecoglou by Shaun Devenney. Of Greek origin, Ange Postecoglou is a former Australian football player and current coach. He grew up in South Melbourne and spent his entire playing career with South Melbourne FC, with whom he won the Australian Championship twice. He is depicted here celebrating one of the two Scottish championship titles he won as manager of Celtic Glasgow. A little further on, on the corner with Craine Street, another mural by Peter CTO Seaton: a woman lying down and apparently asleep.

Focus: Bailer

Also from Melbourne, Bailer is a graffiti artist active since the late 1990s. His style lies on the border between tags and street art. He regularly collaborates with various other muralists more specialised in portraits, adding his science of lettering and his abstract forms to add an extra dimension to their joint works. But he also sometimes paints his own murals, like the example above or this one in St Kilda.

Then turn right onto Yarra Street, where you will find four more artworks by Peter CTO Seaton. First, the face of a woman, on two sides of the corner of a house. On the rear facade of the same building, another gorgeous portrait of a woman, probably my favourite mural in South Melbourne. A little further on, a man in profile, difficult to observe and to photograph as it is located in a private courtyard. And finally, the fourth is not on Yarra Street but just opposite on York Street: the enigmatic face of a woman, playing with the architecture of the building.

The laneway parallel to Yarra Street, Yarra Place, contains a few other works. On the corner with York Street, a mystical mural in slightly faded colours by Kid Zoom. The facade of the next building displays several tags and abstract shapes (unknown artists). Opposite the famous cafe St Ali, you will find a collaboration between Tom Gerrard (the human faces) and Dscreet (the birds with the big orange eyes).

I'm not a big fan of his murals, but I mention them here anyway (make up your own mind!). In a narrow passage between Market Street and Chessell Street, Lushsux painted 10 portraits of celebrities, such as Elon Musk or Will Smith.

This guide of the best street art in South Melbourne ends with two final murals, a little bit further away from the ones previously mentioned. On the corner of Railway Place and City Road, artists Kate Hill Flowers and Monster Friends collaborated for this fun and colourful artwork. A little further on Railway Place, you can observe this slightly overloaded mural by Peter Daverington (better view from the platform of City Road tram station).

Southbank

As I wrote in the introduction to this article, there is very little street art in Southbank. But three murals are still worth a look, all painted by Peter CTO Seaton. You will certainly recognise on this facade of Moray Street two of the characters from the movie Matrix, Morpheus and Agent Smith (played respectively by Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving). The other two are on City Road, and both have a slightly troubling connotation. First, this frightened woman looking at a television screen on which appears the word “FEAR”, then further on this couple cuddling while wearing gas masks.

What are your favourite murals in South Melbourne and Southbank? Did I forget to mention some of them? Send me a message to let me know!